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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Between the rock (salt) and a hard spot

This is a
little story of a little entity getting by.
The governor of our state does not believe in little entities. He believes in mergers, consolidations,
bigger is better. He used to work on
Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, to be exact. He has nothing to do with this story, but may
he be a one term governor, and not because of bankruptcy.

Little
entities do understand how big jobs are done. We cooperate with the entities
around us. We lend and borrow equipment and expertise. Our shops keep equipment
in top notch repair.

My fax
machine hummed this summer with schematics for the hydraulics of the back
hoe. The road super showed me one part
that cost $495. He was incensed. I pointed it probably was tempered metal and
had four beautiful welds. I believe the
whole job came in at under a thousand in parts, and our old back hoe is back in
business. A new back hoe? A hundred grand, or more. We’re still saving up for it.

Bringing us
right up to the current topic. Road
salt. How do we get the same price as the great big cities around us? We belong
to their consortium. How do we meet the minimum? By buying the salt for the
village, which has no salt storage facility.
It is extremely convenient for them, as our salt barn is smack in the
middle of their village.

Road salt
remains as contentious a product as in Roman times. There are only two suppliers
in Ohio, Morton and Cargill. They both
mine under Lake Erie, Morton from the Michigan side and Cargill from the Ohio
side, out in eastern Lake County. The
roads are crunchy white out there year round, from the salt trucks coming out
of the mine.

Do they collude? Of course. Do they get in trouble? Once in a while. In the meantime, taxpayers
pay for the salt on their roads, and dearly.
The price has more than doubled in my ten years of paying for it. The consortium's supplier has always been Cargill, but
with only two players in the game, and roads needing cleared and salted in
winter, it just seems obvious that the suppliers, are
maximizing profits. Their job, I
suppose.

Several
years ago fuel surcharges were added. The price of fuel fell, the
consortium complained, the charges dropped.
The last two winters have been mild. The township has not purchased the
amount of salt we committed to. No one has. Cargill whipped out a storage charge of three
dollars a ton. That set the township
back almost a thousand dollars.

The township
nearly met the commitment last year, plus several hundred tons arrears from the
previous contract, but fell one hundred twenty tons short. The road super and I looked at each other and
shrugged. Surely they wouldn’t nick us too badly for that. We also conspired a bit on our own. The mine is always there, full of salt. We would only commit to the minimum tonnage
this year, 620 tons, down from our usual 690.

You're not the only ones thrown under Cargill's wheels. They pretty much do what they want. Glad you had a place to stash that salt so you could at least avoid the extra charge.

The highway department uses cinders from the volcanic geology around here to help with ice on the road. It doesn't rot cars underneath like salt but it sandblasts the exterior and chips the windows. If there were only a way to get the snow not to fall on the roads.

Sydney built a desalination plant a few years back, we were in drought but then we had floods so as far as I know we have never used it but we will be in drought again so we should use it. Does sea salt work we should have plenty in the future.Merle.........

Sea salt is an expensive road salt option for the interior of the country. A bad winter several years ago and the salt producers ran out. Some municipalities trucked in sea salt. The township used grits.

North of the border salt also comes from near Lake Erie. I read that you started salt mines on your side of the lake and we figured out there must also be some on our side, they dug test wells and Bingo.

Road salt and the storage for it aren't something we need to think about down here. We rarely get ice on our roads, maybe an occasional icy spot on frosty nights is all. I hope your winter is mild enough that you don't need to use all that salt and have enough for next year too.

I often see salt stores here, they are cone shaped and weird. I have never wondered where the salt comes from or who pays for it. The Highways Agency, I guess. ?? I think you organise it completely differently in the US.